It should surprise nobody that today China is an economic super power, it supplies products to consumers world-wide and it is a major market for raw materials. It is also an engine for growth in the rest of the world and it’s probably the major driver behind the strength of the German economy because of its appetite for engineering products. As China builds its factories to manufacture value added products it needs the equipment to make this possible.
And as with many other major economies China has a substantial automotive industry. In fact China currently has the world’s biggest automotive industry in terms of vehicle output. That means that it’s a major market for Spline Gauge’s products.
But as everyone who’s done business in China will confirm it’s not an easy market to penetrate. It’s vast, the language is different and there’s always lots of competition from local suppliers. And the potential riches of course always mean that all the competitors that a company would find in other markets are present eager for a slice of the action but equally ill-equipped to be competitive.
The business gurus would say that you can’t be successful if you treat China as just another market. It needs its own strategy for entry, it needs its own resources and it needs patience. And probably it needs companies at least to accept the need for a different approach and perhaps to compromise the strategy which serves them well elsewhere.
Spline Gauges is no different. Successful in other major automotive markets and with automotive OEMs it finds itself over-whelmed by the challenge of China. But that’s where it can exploit the advantages of being a member of the Apex Tool Group. It’s not just Spline Gauges but it’s a part of a USD1 billion plus business and that gives it presence and resources world-wide and especially in China. That means it’s able to put its own management in place in China to drive its business forward and to respond to the needs of the Chinese market.
Malcolm Ryman, Spline Gauges’ managing director says: ‘This is a really exciting development for Spline Gauges. Without our people on the ground China would risk being an ‘insurmountable opportunity’ for us. With our people we get better contact with customers and more immediate feedback from the market’.